Andrew, I appreciate your raising the background (with all due qualifications), of which I wasn’t aware. If it’s correct, the issue, of course, becomes: why are we, the U.S., discrediting Gitmo by word and deed when everything we see and hear tells us it is more necessary than ever. We should be shoring up the legal basis to operate it, not clearing it out.

I understand why the administration would ask the Brits for such an accommodation, though I am appalled by the thought (which I continue to hope is not true). But I don’t understand why Prime Minister Brown would agree. He’s already got an alarming percentage of British Muslims who support acts like the 7/7 bombings and the imposition of Sharia. What on earth does he need this headache for? I have to think that if these guys were not a substantial threat to commit acts of terrorism, we’d already have released them — as we have released hundreds of Gitmo detainees since 2002.